British-Guyanese actress Letitia Wright revealed last night at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards that she almost quit acting due to depression. The 2019 edition of the annual BAFTAs held on Sunday, February 10 at Royal Albert Hall in London. See all the winners list.
The rising star award is the only prize voted for by the public. It was presented to Wright by Regina King and Luke Evans.
The 25-year-old, who is a Christian, began her acceptance speech by thanking God and then went on to reveal that her faith, family, friends and an email from Bafta had helped lift her out of a deep state of depression.
Wright captivated audiences around the world playing Shuri in Black Panther.
Her acceptance speech read.
“I identify myself as a child of God and I can’t get up here without thanking God.
“A few years ago I saw myself in a deep state of depression and I literally wanted to quit acting.
“The only thing that pretty much pulled me out of it was God, my belief, my faith, my family, and an email from Bafta saying that they wanted me to be a part of the Bafta breakthrough Brits. And I was like: ‘Let me try again’.
“So this wasn’t an overnight thing, this wasn’t a click of a finger success, and it’s still a work in progress, I’m still a work in progress, but I want to just thank God, I want to thank my family, I want to thank my team at IAG, Femi…
“I want to thank everybody that said yes to me, I want to say thank you to everybody that gave me a chance, and just saw my talent, saw what God placed in me, and said ‘yes’.
“I want to encourage young people. Matter of fact you don’t even have to be young, you can be any age, but I just want to encourage you. Anybody that’s going through a hard time or something in their soul or that they’ve lost their light, I want to encourage you that God made you and you’re important. There might be some of you here that’s going through depression, that’s going through a bad time and you’re putting on a smile on your face and nobody can see that but you know it and God knows it and I just want to encourage you and I just want to say that God loves you and just let your light shine.”
We say a big congratulation!
BAFTA 2019 WINNERS LIST
BEST FILM
BLACKkKLANSMAN
THE FAVOURITE
GREEN BOOK
ROMA – WINNER
A STAR IS BORN
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
BEAST
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
THE FAVOURITE – WINNER
McQUEEN
STAN & OLLIE
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
APOSTASY Daniel Kokotajlo (Writer/Director)
BEAST Michael Pearce (Writer/Director), Lauren Dark (Producer) – WINNER
A CAMBODIAN SPRING Chris Kelly (Writer/Director/Producer)
PILI Leanne Welham (Writer/Director), Sophie Harman (Producer)
RAY & LIZ Richard Billingham (Writer/Director), Jacqui Davies (Producer)
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
CAPERNAUM Nadine Labaki, Khaled Mouzanar
COLD WAR Paweł Pawlikowski, Tanya Seghatchian, Ewa Puszczyńska
DOGMAN Matteo Garrone
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez – WINNER
SHOPLIFTERS Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kaoru Matsuzaki
DOCUMENTARY
FREE SOLO – WINNER
McQUEEN
RBG
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD
THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS
ANIMATED FILM
INCREDIBLES 2
ISLE OF DOGS
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE – WINNER
DIRECTOR
BLACKkKLANSMAN Spike Lee
COLD WAR Paweł Pawlikowski
THE FAVOURITE Yorgos Lanthimos
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón – WINNER
A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
COLD WAR Janusz Głowacki, Paweł Pawlikowski
THE FAVOURITE Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara – WINNER
GREEN BOOK Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón
VICE Adam McKay
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BLACKkKLANSMAN Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott – WINNER
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty
FIRST MAN Josh Singer
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Barry Jenkins
A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters, Eric Roth
LEADING ACTRESS
GLENN CLOSE The Wife
LADY GAGA A Star Is Born
MELISSA McCARTHY Can You Ever Forgive Me?
OLIVIA COLMAN The Favourite – WINNER
VIOLA DAVIS Widows
LEADING ACTOR
BRADLEY COOPER A Star Is Born
CHRISTIAN BALE Vice
RAMI MALEK Bohemian Rhapsody – WINNER
STEVE COOGAN Stan & Ollie
VIGGO MORTENSEN Green Book
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS Vice
CLAIRE FOY First Man
EMMA STONE The Favourite
MARGOT ROBBIE Mary Queen of Scots
RACHEL WEISZ The Favourite – WINNER
SUPPORTING ACTOR
ADAM DRIVER BlacKkKlansman
MAHERSHALA ALI Green Book – WINNER
RICHARD E. GRANT Can You Ever Forgive Me?
SAM ROCKWELL Vice
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Beautiful Boy
ORIGINAL MUSIC
BLACKkKLANSMAN Terence Blanchard
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Nicholas Britell
ISLE OF DOGS Alexandre Desplat
MARY POPPINS RETURNS Marc Shaiman
A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Lukas Nelson – WINNER
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Newton Thomas Sigel
COLD WAR Łukasz Żal
THE FAVOURITE Robbie Ryan
FIRST MAN Linus Sandgren
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón – WINNER
EDITING
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY John Ottman
THE FAVOURITE Yorgos Mavropsaridis
FIRST MAN Tom Cross
ROMA Alfonso Cuarón, Adam Gough
VICE Hank Corwin – WINNER
PRODUCTION DESIGN
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD Stuart Craig, Anna Pinnock
THE FAVOURITE Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton – WINNER
FIRST MAN Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
MARY POPPINS RETURNS John Myhre, Gordon Sim
ROMA Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enríquez
COSTUME DESIGN
THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS Mary Zophres
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Julian Day
THE FAVOURITE Sandy Powell – WINNER
MARY POPPINS RETURNS Sandy Powell
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Alexandra Byrne
MAKE UP & HAIR
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Mark Coulier, Jan Sewell
THE FAVOURITE Nadia Stacey – WINNER
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Jenny Shircore
STAN & OLLIE Mark Coulier, Jeremy Woodhead
VICE Nominees TBC
SOUND
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY John Casali, Tim Cavagin, Nina Hartstone, Paul Massey, John Warhurst – WINNER
FIRST MAN Mary H. Ellis, Mildred Iatrou Morgan, Ai-Ling Lee, Frank A. Montaño, Jon Taylor
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT Gilbert Lake, James H. Mather, Christopher Munro, Mike Prestwood Smith
A QUIET PLACE Erik Aadahl, Michael Barosky, Brandon Procter, Ethan Van der Ryn
A STAR IS BORN Steve Morrow, Alan Robert Murray, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Kelly Port, Dan Sudick
BLACK PANTHER Geoffrey Baumann, Jesse James Chisholm, Craig Hammack, Dan Sudick – WINNER
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD Tim Burke, Andy Kind, Christian Manz, David Watkins
FIRST MAN Ian Hunter, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, J.D. Schwalm
READY PLAYER ONE Matthew E. Butler, Grady Cofer, Roger Guyett, David Shirk
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
I’M OK Elizabeth Hobbs, Abigail Addison, Jelena Popović
MARFA Gary McLeod, Myles McLeod
ROUGHHOUSE Jonathan Hodgson, Richard Van Den Boom – WINNER
BRITISH SHORT FILM
73 COWS Alex Lockwood – WINNER
BACHELOR, 38 Angela Clarke
THE BLUE DOOR Ben Clark, Megan Pugh, Paul Taylor
THE FIELD Sandhya Suri, Balthazar de Ganay
WALE Barnaby Blackburn, Sophie Alexander, Catherine Slater, Edward Speleers
EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
BARRY KEOGHAN
CYNTHIA ERIVO
JESSIE BUCKLEY
LAKEITH STANFIELD
LETITIA WRIGHT – WINNER
